The Desert Burns
by prouvaires
Summary: -This is perfection.- NubiaxAristo, slight spoilers for last book.


**So, I've done a couple of Flavia/Floppy one-shots, and I thought you might want a Nubia/Aristo. What would that couple name be? Naristo? Arubia? Anyway … enjoy.**

She was nervous. He knew that much as he watched her undress. She was slow, her movements clumsy. Her eyes never met his, and her chest rose and fell in rapid breaths. His heart, already irrevocably hers, twinged. He hated seeing her so shy – it was so unlike her.

He rose up from the bed, where he had being lying on his side. He placed his hand over hers, where it was at her throat, ready to unfasten her nightdress, and twined his fingers with hers. His lips pressed against the side of her neck in a delicate caress, and she sighed as softly as thistledown as his other hand moved her hair away from the back of her neck, which he began to kiss gently.

He could feel her shiver against him, and he could feel tension sparking off in his spine, too. He drew her gently towards the bed, and sat down next to her, cupping the side of her face with one bronzed hand. He kissed her softly on the lips, parting them with a sigh, and his eyes flashed open suddenly to see her exotic, golden, tiger's eyes gazing into his.

He smiled into the kiss and she surprised him suddenly by getting to her feet and pulling off the nightdress in one swift, sure movement. He smiled. She was the Nubia he knew again.

---

Nubia hadn't ever expected to be so happy. When she watched her family turn to ash and her life fall away as she entered the dark cavern of the stinking slave-ship, she thought she wouldn't live. Then, with Flavia, as things got better, she was … content. At ease. Nothing more.

Then she had fallen in love with Aristo, and everything had changed. Watching him fall in love with Miriam, kiss Diana … it made her heart ache in strange ways that she didn't understand. Then, when for the final time everything was lost, they had been pulled from the brink of insanity by the sudden mercy of a mad emperor, and Nubia had never, ever been so happy, even before Venalicius burned the desert.

His eyes, catching hers across the table, his hand clutching hers tight as they ascended to their bedroom for the first time. His touch, his understanding, his _love. _He's more perfect than she ever could have hoped for.

And now, watching his beautiful head bent over their daughter, she was so happy she didn't know what to do with herself. He glanced up at her, once, and his face was so consumed with joy she thought he would start to glow. He reached out a hand towards her, where she lay exhausted on the bloody bed. She half sat up, and he moved the tiny baby into her waiting arms. They formed the right shape easily, naturally, and he ran a hand over the baby's damp fuzz of hair as she slept.

"She's perfect," he said quietly, moving his thumb to brush against Nubia's cheek.

"Yes."

They both smiled at each other, frightened and tired and unsure of whether they'll be any good at parenting, but nevertheless so entirely euphorious they felt they could fly.

"What do you want to call her?" Aristo asked her, pressing his lips to the top of her head.

"I do not know. Is there a name you would like?"

He beamed at her, and then down at the sleeping child. "Yes. I think I would like to call her Alanna. It suits her."

Nubia looked down at her daughter, her coffee-coloured skin blending with the bronze curls that were all Aristo.

"Alanna. Pretty baby, are you Alanna?"

The baby burbled sleepily, her eyes opening briefly to show a flash of golden-amber.

"She's so beautiful," Aristo said, his arm encircling Nubia's shoulders. "She has your eyes."

"And your hair," she replied happily, her fingers softly stroking Alanna's tiny hands with their perfectly formed fingernails.

She felt Aristo's strong hands tugging gently at her chin, and she turned her face towards him. He kissed her strongly, and she kissed him back.

"I love you," he whispered as he toyed with her hair.

"And I, you," she told him, and kissed him again, the baby pressed between them.


End file.
